The Vasari Corridor, explained

I grew up in the Oltrarno a few streets from Santa Felicita, and for most of my life the corridor was something I walked under on the way to the bridge. It reopened on 21 December 2024 after eight years shut. This is what I tell friends who ask whether to book a tour.

What it is, and the way it runs

Cosimo I de’ Medici had Giorgio Vasari build it in 1565, in about five months, for the wedding of his son Francesco to Joanna of Austria. It let the duke go from his home at Palazzo Pitti to the seat of government at Palazzo Vecchio without setting foot in the street.

The visit starts in the Uffizi, runs along the Arno, crosses the bridge above the shops, bends round the Mannelli Tower on stone brackets because the family would not let it be pulled down, and passes a balcony that looks into Santa Felicita, so the ducal family could hear Mass unseen. It ends at a door beside the Buontalenti Grotto in the Boboli Gardens. That is about a kilometre, one way, in about 45 minutes. You cannot turn back and you cannot linger.

The official ticket and the two-hour rule

There is no daytime ticket for the corridor alone. You buy the Uffizi + Vasari Corridor ticket on tickets.uffizi.it: €47 booked ahead, €43 on the day. The Uffizi on its own is €29, so the corridor costs you €18. The time printed on the ticket is the corridor time, and it lets you into the Uffizi two hours earlier.

Two hours sounds generous until you learn that the meeting point, Room D19 on the first floor, is about 45 minutes’ walk from the entrance by the museum’s own estimate. Be there five minutes before your slot. Groups of 25 leave on time with two museum staff, and anyone late loses the right to enter. A reviewer called David Richard, from the United Kingdom, spent five hours in the Uffizi and missed his corridor slot altogether. Plan the gallery backwards from D19.

The tickets are named and checked against photo ID, cannot be refunded, and you can buy five at most per transaction. They are released gradually and they sell out. The ticket offices stay open when the website has nothing left. Booking it step by step.

Two cheaper doors

Every Friday from 3 July to 20 November 2026 the corridor opens from 7 pm to 11 pm on a corridor-only ticket: €24 ahead, €20 on the day. You meet at the entrance in Piazzale degli Uffizi next to the Loggia dei Lanzi, pass through the gallery without visiting it, and come out by the Rondò di Bacco gate into Piazza Pitti. It takes about 35 minutes. As of 5 October 2026 there are seven Fridays left, and nothing has been announced for 2027. If you have already seen the Uffizi, this is the one to book. The Friday dates and rules.

The other door is the free first Sunday of the month. The corridor is open then, at no extra cost, but only to people who reserved online, and only while slots last. They are the most contested slots of the month, so treat it as luck rather than a plan.

What a tour adds, and what it does not

A tour buys you a guide in the Uffizi, and that is where a guide earns the money. Tom, from Australia, wrote that his guide “brought the paintings to life”, and that is the thing you are paying for.

A tour also buys you a slot. When the official dates are gone, a listing that already holds corridor tickets may be the only way in. John, from the United States, booked a ticket product because “everything else was sold out”. The two ticket-only listings at €79 and €83 charge €32–36 more than the official €47 for the same two entries. That is a poor deal on an open date and a fair one on a sold-out date.

What a tour does not buy is commentary in the corridor. Museum staff walk with every group but do not give tours, and operators say their guides are not permitted to explain inside. One listing has its guide walk the corridor with you and point things out; on the rest, expect silence. And read the price. Two listings put “Vasari” in the title and quote a from-price for the option without it. Two reviewers, Melody and Diana from the United States, thought the corridor was included and it was not. All six options in one table.

The bag rule

No backpacks, no rucksacks, no suitcases of any size, no large umbrellas. People who turn up with them are not let in and are not refunded. The trap is the cloakroom: whatever you leave there has to be collected by walking back round by road, down Via Guicciardini and over the Ponte Vecchio, because the corridor does not let you return. Keep your coat on your arm. Photos are allowed, video is not. The museum’s access rules list the rest.

My verdict

It is a 45-minute walk down a bare passage with remarkable windows. The self-portraits that hung there until 2016 have not come back; since July 2025 there are more than fifty Roman busts above the bridge instead. Phillip, from the United Kingdom, put it fairly: the views were “stunning” and the inside “quite underwhelming”. I still think it is worth €18 once, for the windows over the Arno and the moment you look into Santa Felicita.

So book the official ticket if it has your date. Book a Friday evening if you have seen the Uffizi. Pay for a tour if you want the paintings explained, or if the official slots are gone. Choose by the paintings, not by the corridor.

Ready to book?

Try the official ticket first. If your dates are gone, or you want the Uffizi explained before the walk, the options are compared here, with what each price includes.

Frequently asked questions